New Hope, New Future
by TheSealer
Summary: This happens in a different future, when the Ener-D never went berserk and Z-ONE, Paradox, Aporia and Antimony aka Bruno met at young age. One-shot


**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (obviously)**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ - transitions

**This happens in a different future, when the Ener-D never went berserk and Z-ONE, Paradox, Aporia and Antimony/Vyzor (Bruno) met at young age.**

**In this fict, Aporia looks like Lester; Antimony/Vyzor will be called Bruno; Z-one will be called Hiroki; Paradox will be called Takeru. I know the characters may be a little OC, but they are just kids, ok.**

* * *

><p><strong>New Hope, New Future<strong>

Z-ONE went straight to the core, knowing that would mean his doom. He had done such terrible things in most of his life. And this was the first good thing he has done in decades. And undoubtedly the last.

"Paradox…Antimony…Aporia." – he whispered. – "I hope we can meet in a better future."

And with that last wish in his mind, **Hiroki Ishida**, now known as Z-ONE disappeared from this world.

* * *

><p><em>Year 2267, Neo Domino City…<em>

The rays of the sun entered his run, waking up the young boy. A 13-year-old black-haired, green-eyed boy reluctantly woke up. His name was Hiroki Ishida. His eyes went from semi-closed and sleepy to wide open and surprised when he looked at the calendar in his room. Today was 13th September…his first day at Duel Academy!

"Oh, man!" – he jumped out of the bed and dressed up his uniform in a blink of an eye. He got his Duel Disk, Duel Board and Deck. He climbed down to the kitchen, where his mother was preparing the breakfast.

"Good morning, Hiroki!" – he mother greeted with a warm smile.

"Good morning! Sorry mom, but I'm late for Duel Academy!" – Hiroki said in a hurry, grabbing a toast. He left the house, riding on his board.

"Wait, Hiroki!"– but her son did not hear it. He continued skating through the streets and soon passed a Duel Park, a public space dedicated to public duels. At that time only one duel was occurring.

"_Of everyday I could be late to dueling classes, did it needed to be in my first day?_" - Hiroki was so focused in his inner thoughts he nearly crashed into a tree. The young duelist was able to avoid the crashing, but the maneuver made him lose control of the board and Hiroki slide off the vehicle.

"Oh, man! Just what I needed." – Hiroki groaned. He rode on the board again, but something stopped him right before he could get out of there. It was another boys' voice calling out.

"I Synchro Summon Malefic Paradox Dragon!" – intrigued, Hiroki looked to see the duel. The adversaries were two boys around his age. One had orange hair and was taller than Hiroki or his opponent. He seemed to have an arrogant look and had a VWXYZ – Dragon Catapult Dragon on his field.

The other, who had just summoned a big black dragon, had long blond hair, with a few hanks of purple hair on the front. He was the same height as Hiroki.

(VWXYZ – Dragon Catapult Dragon ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2800)

(Malefic Paradox Dragon ATK: 4000 / DEF: 4000)

"Paradox, you may win this turn, but next…" – the black haired began, but his opponent, apparently named Paradox, cut him off.

"Not a chance, dude. This duel ends now! I activate my dragon's special ability. Now, I can summon back from the grave my Synchro monster, Akuryo, the Malefic Lord!" – the blond/purple haired shouted. A monster man wearing a white and black mask appeared. – "Now, every monster on your field loses ATK points equal to Akuryo's ATK."

(Akuryo, the Malefic Lord ATK: 2500)

(VWXYZ – Dragon Catapult Dragon ATK: 3000 – 2500 = 500)

"Ah, nuts!" – the red-head groaned, knowing he was going to lose.

"Now, Malefic Paradox Dragon let him have it!" – the black dragon attacked, destroying the weakened giant machine.

(LP Opponent: 2900 – (4000 – 500) = 0)

(LP Paradox: 1900 **'WINNER'**)

"Oh, yeah. He draws and he beats! Who's the man?" – Paradox made a silly victory dance, his gaze drifting to a third boy, a spectator. Though this one looked like a girl. He had with long dark-red hair and green eyes. His hair was arranged in a braid that reached his waist.

"You're the man, Paradox." – he sighed, not very amused by Paradox's hotshot attitude. Hiroki approached the two boys. Paradox was the first to notice him.

"Hey there! Wanna duel?" – Paradox invited friendly.

"No thanks. I was just watching. My name is Hiroki Ishida." – Hiroki introduced himself.

"I'm Takeru Takuma, but you can call me Paradox." – the blond/purple-haired said.

"Why Paradox?" – Hiroki asked.

"Long story, dude." – Paradox noticed that the spectator boy remained silent, looking at Hiroki with no interest. – "And this Mr. Sunshine here is Aporia. And don't you even think about mistaking him with a girl. Some people did that before and they didn't last a minute."

"Nice to meet you." – Hiroki extended his hand, but Aporia did not shake it.

"Nice to meet a wannabe duelist like you." – Aporia responded, with a small grin. Paradox sighed and Hiroki frowned.

"Who are you calling a wannabe?"

"You, wannabe. No wonder you didn't accept Paradox challenge after seeing him dueling." – Aporia retorted.

"Come on, Aporia. Don't be a pain." – Paradox replied.

"Then, how about I challenge you to a duel." – Hiroki said, activating his Duel Disk.

"You're on." – Aporia accepted the challenge with a grin. Paradox stood back. Meanwhile, a new young boy of the same age as the other 3 appeared. He was riding on a Duel Board at an incredible speed. The boy had blue hair and grey eyes.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Out of the way! Coming through!" – the boy shouted, to warn the passersby. The boy stop close by Paradox, but not before making a 360º degree rotation stunt.

"Hi, Paradox! What's up?" – the newcomer greeted, cheerful.

"Aporia's cockiness, apparently Bruno." – Paradox pointed to the duel.

"Let me guess. Aporia decided to mess with someone else. Usually his opponents don't last much." – the boy Bruno commented.

"I don't think this is the case. I think Aporia wants to test this guy. See how good he is." – Paradox suggested. Bruno took a closer look at Hiroki.

"Who's he, anyway?"

"His name is Hiroki. He watched me dispatching that brat Takuya." – Paradox said.

"Let's duel!" – both duelists shouted.

(LP Aporia: 4000)

(LP Hiroki: 4000)

"I'll start by summoning Grand Core from my hand. Next, I'll use my Chaos Bloom Spell. Since I have no card with the same name in my Graveyard, I get to destroy one monster on the field with 1000 ATK or less. So my Grand Core is going." – Aporia said and his only monster disappeared.

"Wow! Aporia is not kidding. I'm afraid Hiroki is gonna be creamed after this." – Bruno whispered, while Paradox nodded.

"_Destroying his own monster? What is this guy up to?"_ – Hiroki examined his hand. – "_I hope my Traps can put a stop to whatever is his plan."_

"Now that my Grand Core was destroyed by a card effect, I can bring out my Granel Top, Granel Attack, Granel Guard, and Granel Carrier from my hand and Deck." – Aporia announced, as several machine parts appeared, all of them with 0 ATK and DEF. – "Now I can unite them to make a real monster"

The parts joined together, making a great yellow robot. Hiroki had heard about that type of monsters. They were the Meklords, the best weapon to use against Synchro monsters.

"Meet my Meklord Emperor Granel and its ATK are equal to my LP. Next, I'll place one card face down. Turn end."

(Meklord Emperor Granel ATK: 4000 / DEF: 4000)

"Getting rid of that pile of scrap metal will be a piece of cake. I summon my Temporal Machine Angel, in ATK mode." – Hiroki summoned a creature covered by blue armor, with two prongs.

(Temporal Machine Angel ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"What are you gonna do with your little toy?" – Aporia teased.

" I'm gonna attack your monster. Go, Temporal Machine Angel!" – Hiroki ordered and his monster went against the Meklord.

"What is he doing?" – Paradox and Bruno asked, puzzled.

"Granel, counter-attack!" – Aporia said and his monster fought the attacking one, destroying it. Unexpectedly, Hiroki took no damage.

"I activate my The Fool's Ruling Trap from my hand, which reduces my damage to 0." – Hiroki said, showing the trap in his hand.

"You just activated a trap from your hand?" – Aporia asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and there's much more where that came from. Next, Temporal Machine Angel's special ability kicks in, shoving the parts of your Exodia wannabe back to your hand." – And with that, Grannel disappeared and its 5 cards returned to Aporia's hand.

"Well, he just got rid of one of Aporia's best monsters without having to destroy him. Not bad." – Bruno commented.

"Then, I activate another trap from my hand: The Magician's Wisdom. For every card returned to your hand, you take 300 LP of damage. I set one face down and end my turn."

(LP Aporia: 4000 – (5 * 300) = 2500)

"_Weird…that felt familiar…like I've dueled against those cards once._" – Aporia thought, before remembering it was his move.

"I summon Wise Core and activate my Chaos Blast Spell, which lets me discard 3 weak monsters so I can destroy my Wise Core. With my Wise Core gone, I can Special Summon Wisel Top, Wisel Attack, Wisel Guard, and Wisel Carrier from my hand, Deck, or Graveyard." – the monster pieces Aporia summoned were similar to Granel's in overall shape.

"You're putting together another Exodia wannabe, right?" – Hiroki asked.

"Well, this new _Exodia wannabe_ will succeed in what the last one failed." – Aporia countered. – "I combine my new monsters into Meklord Emperor Wisel!"

(Meklord Emperor Wisel ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2500)

This new robot had actual legs and was white and bigger than the last one. He pointed its arm-blade at Hiroki, menacingly.

"Wisel attack his LP directly!" – Aporia shouted. This attack was going to be successful.

"I activate another trap from my hand: The High Priestess' Staff!" – or maybe not. – "Now, your _Weasel_…"

"Wisel!" – Aporia corrected, annoyed.

"Whatever. Your monster's attack will be negated and your Battle Phase ended." – with that, Meklord Emperor Wisel retreated back to Aporia's side of the field. – "And, as a bonus, my trap also takes away 500 of your LP."

(LP Aporia: 2500 – 500 = 2000)

"Remind me to only challenge Hiroki to a duel if I ever want to get my butt kicked." – Paradox whispered to Bruno. The blue-haired gave him a strange look.

"Why would you ever want to get your butt kicked? That makes no sense, Paradox." – Bruno asked.

"Well, duh! That's why they call me 'Paradox'."

"I place one card face down and end my turn." – Aporia said. – "_I have to admit I underestimated this Hiroki guy. If all of his traps can be activated from his hand, I'll never know whether he's got one or not. But doesn't matter; I can still win this_."

"_I can't stop thinking I've had this exact same duel with this guy._" – Hiroki thought – "_But there's no way that ever happened. I've never met him before._"

"Now, I activate my face down Zero Machine Ain. This trap lets me summon a lv. 10 or higher monster without any sacrifice. Though its ATK will become 0, but it'll be worth it. I now summon my Metaion, the Timelord."

(Metaion, the Timelord ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"Metaion attack his Meklord Emperor Wisel now!" – Hiroki demanded and his monster did so. Wisel counter-attacked but Metaion didn't bite the dust.

"Thanks to Metaion's special effect, he can't be destroyed in battle and any Battle Damage I would have received becomes 0. And another of his abilities is making your monster's pieces returning to your hand…"

"And inflicting 400 LP of damage for every card returned to my hand, correct?" – Aporia growled, frustrated for having fallen for the same trick three times.

"You're catching on." – Hiroki teased. – "I win."

(LP Aporia: 2000 – (5 * 400) = 0)

(LP Hiroki: 4000 **'WINNER'**)

Before Hiroki could say anything else, he was lifted in the air. He was being carried on Paradox's and Bruno's shoulders, like the champion of a football match.

"And the trophy for our champion goes to Hiroki Ishida!" – Paradox announced, like he was an MC of a dueling tournament.

"Great duel, kid. My name is Bruno, by the way." – the blue-haired boy answered.

"Thanks guys. Now put me down, OK?" – Hiroki asked. Aporia approached the three of them, with a stern face. Hiroki looked at him in the eye and Aporia smiled and extended his hand. Hiroki shocked it and smiled too.

"Nice meeting you, Hiroki. That was great duel." – Aporia complimented, been friendly for the first time in that day.

"Yeah, thanks." – Hiroki thanked warmly.

"Say Hiroki, we were going to hang out in the park later. Wanna join us?" – Bruno invited.

"For real?" – Hiroki asked.

"Yeah. So what do you say?" – Aporia asked.

"Count me in!" – Hiroki accepted gladly.

"OK, see ya around, Hiroki!" – Paradox, Bruno and Aporia bid, walking away. Hiroki's joy was interrupted when he realized he was totally late for Duel Academy!

"Oh man! I don't believe this!" – his groan demonstrated his frustration, but Hiroki was smiling anyway. – "Maybe sometimes is good being late."


End file.
